The Justice Department has been unable to recover $97 billion from enforcement actions and other criminal cases, an amount that has tripled since 2004. Michael Rothfeld joins MoneyBeat. Photo: Getty.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

over the last decade financial watchdogs of stepped up their prosecutions of market malefactors ... and monetary judgments tripling over that time frame but growth will that that work ... on collecting those judgments though that is another question ... a Michael roughly here with this exclusive story ... I think this is something has been covering on a bunch of different fronts ... today it's time to clean up with it all together ... aam we want wonder why I mean why are we getting the money that were due from these people ... well a couple of reasons first ... the government is getting huge judgments and then the announcer giving hire ... over the air is against people who were convicted are found guilty in and simple regulatory actions and so ... you know the amounts are often very high and that ... a lot of times said the money may not actually be there and that's one reason the government actually isn't collecting money but the other reason is that ... in cases where there is schemes fraud schemes people often spend the money or they hide the money and the government ... and is often able to get the money so you had these huge debt from inspired ... into the amounts that are collected on them is often much lower alludes to pull ... the chart here about the Justice Party in Syria ... I ... explain to what's going on in what was up twenty one point seven percent the you me ... what that is basically the amount that in the fiscal year two thousand thirteen that the Justice Department selected the ... time the amount of judgments that that that that it got in that year so I'm twenty one ... is a twenty ... page the created incremental judgments on ... Sir number billions of dollars and twenty percent of his bad but they collected ... how is it possible that that they can get this money I mean first off what I call does it take to thumb your nose at the federal government I mean ... up I don't understand you can even do the right story ... on yesterday about the guy's name is a scheme although there yet ... on ... when will the Balkans intention not a just judgment ... well I've people will go on a pan and they ... too don't yet so they you know a lot of times you know if you have a big bank I know Goldman Sachs JPMorgan you know they make settlements with the government on things and ... Featherstone business to ongoing concerns they they have to pay a ... publicly traded but when you have ... an individual who maybe doesn't have you know that kind of anything at stake like that ... and that in order to pay sixty million light bills area in the nineteen eighties corporate Raider was ... you know he's going to say no I don't think again wrong and I know I don't wanna pay he also then later said he didn't have the money but you know that's lots watch ... you know wants to pay rate on the other great one is is to spell or write these self proclaimed ... Obel Wall Street guy who was not ... Jordan Jordan Belfort II who is on a hundred million roughly they had earned ten million ... ten million of ordered to pay and as restitution to victims thousandthree and ... having eleven million roughly is it a bit of through real estate sales but he's out there making money ... and the federal prosecutors ... I'm you know they they moved to have held the fall in the pullback in said now we're negotiating with them ... but since then a you know they've been on were killed ... the old jail can ... go to jail time I mean ... how are they not how tall big enough stick to get them to play ... well ... with the with some of them end up into the Advil thereon they did put in jail that CCE up on him in jail after he refused to pay the unanimously they got four million dollars but they ended up spending money you know eight eight million dollars to get the four million dollars so ... it's a mean it isn't easy and you know the government ... it isn't always be there moving on to other things in other bureaucracies and ... so you know they try and sometimes they succeed but you know a lot of times they fail their ... good work I aam I'll even great stories things like ... that